Every year, we head out on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. A lot of times we avoid the crowds and head over to our church to purchase our pumpkins. But some years, we like to have the big, fall season experience. Although we don’t want to spend a ton of money on just one, we still have a great time searching for the largest pumpkin in the patch. The kids love searching for their own pumpkin as well. We tell them to only find one they can hold themselves. This is by far one of my favorite times of the year! And I’m so excited to share this pumpkin freebie with you!
More Than Just Carving
Cutting up a pumpkin is exciting for students and teachers. It is so fun to see your learners’ faces as they see the inside of a pumpkin for the first time. As each child slowly opens their pumpkin, the stringy mess is exposed. And that’s when the fun begins. We always guess what pumpkin will have the most seeds! It’s not always the largest. Not only do we count the seeds, but we get our hands dirty and just explore the insides of the pumpkin. The kids love coming up with their own describing words while they use their senses. Grayson wasn’t too eager to stick his hands inside, but Kynlee was all over it!
After we carve our pumpkins and clean up, my kids love creating their own pumpkin using this fun book that I created. (Pssst….you can grab it below!). We use bright orange paint to paint the outsides of the pumpkin.
As they painted we talked about the parts of the pumpkin and why they are important to the pumpkin.
As the paint on the outside of the pumpkin dried, the kids picked out the biggest seeds of all to add to their pumpkin book.
Next, it was time to recreate the inside of our pumpkins. They painted the inside and we added the pulp and seeds.
We used yarn to resemble the pulp inside the pumpkin and used the seeds from the pumpkin.
Now, they have a visual representation of the different parts of a pumpkin that was hands-on, messy and memorable! Grab your Pumpkin FREEBIE by clicking the download button below!